CHESS FEDERATION FOR HARD SELL

 

Botswana Chess Federation vice president for administration, Roger Tiroyamodimo, says the federation intends to spread its wings given the rate at which the sport is growing.

Speaking at the closing and award ceremony of Botswana International Open Chess Championship over the President holidays, he said drawing from their experiences in Gaborone, they wanted to extend chess to places such as Shakawe and Gumare.

“Since our tournament level is improving and attracting more players, we intend to reach places where chess is not played’,” he added.

Tiroyamodimo said the federation was working hard to promote grass-root development hence spreading its wings to reach more places and attract more players who could take the game to greater heights.

He expressed excitement that this year, the tournament attracted more top players such as Woman Grand Master (WGM) Tuduetso Sabure,International Master (IM) Providence Oathotse,International Master (IM) Gillian Bwaya, FIDE Master(FM) Thato Olebile, Candidate Master (CM) Tebogo Pitlagano , Woman International Master (WIM) Onkemetse Francis and the controversial FIDE Master (FM)  Phemelo Khetlo

He said the tournament also attracted top players from other African countries like Zambia and South Africa.

The vice president pointed out that an impressive number of students turned up and gave the top players a tough competition. 

He said their participation showed that they had interest to grow the game and thanked all the participants and the sponsors for a job well done.

Arnold Mothud  was crowned champion in the open section while Sabure was the champion in the women section. She walked away with trophy, and P8 000 while mothud walked away with P2000.

The 2015 champion in the prestige  section,International Master Mwali Chitumbo failed to retain his position as he did not show up to the tournament due to low price money.

Meanwhile, the federation public relation director, Keenese Katisenge explained that the Gaborone tournament was launched in 2007 as a pilot project and they have experienced a big difference in terms of participation, quality of players and its success.

She appreciated that the tournament was growing in bounds and leaps hence they decided that it be held annually in the Botswana city.

In addition, she noted that the tournament assisted the federation to measure the strength of the players as they used the FIDE (the world chess governing body) ratings.

Source : News Today	Author : Dithapelo miti
Location : Gaborone	Event : Closing and award ceremony
Date : october 12 2016